In school, I was intimidated by Math and Science. To escape Science, I took German instead of Chemistry and Physics. Now I am still stumped by Science, but Physics fascinates me.
I found a book called Physics for Poets, by Robert March. I tried to read it, with great difficulty, but still it haunted me.
On this day, the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center , I post this poem that I wrote a while back and recently edited:
Physics for Poets
The realm of quantum
theory is the very small-
Relativity deals with the
very large or the very fast-
Gravity is the central
mystery of our created universe.
I see the man falling the
falling man from the World Trade Center.
Terminal velocity-
I don’t understand it, but
I hear his body hit the
roof of the Atrium,
hear the shocked cries of the people there
that day.
I think of Acceleration in
terms of objects… my car, hurtling down Route 95…
In the absence of
resistance,
all falling bodies
experience
the same constant
acceleration.
That falling man,
that man falling head
first, arms close at his sides
in his business suit,
from the World Trade
Center
in the absence of
resistance.
The buildings fell as the
man fell,
Straight down,
Floors like dominos
Surrendering to the jet
fueled fire,
an engineer’s nightmare.
Temperature is not the
same as heat.
Temperature is intensive –
it does not vary with the
quantity of material.
Heat , however, is extensive –
it does vary with the
amount of material.
No time here for anything
but soot.
The falling man did not
have time for fragrance…
Within the hour he was
vaporized.
No comments:
Post a Comment